1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a condensation device for machines, e.g., paper, coating, and tissue machines, for making and refining fibrous material webs.
The present invention relates to a suction element that includes a hollow body coupled to a vacuum source. The suction element being positioned adjacent to a screen, a belt, or a felt guiding a moist and heated web, e.g., a paper, a textile or other fibrous material web, and further including at least one opening facing the web.
2. Discussion of Background Information
A condensation device has been disclosed, e.g., in DE-OS 40 09 797, wherein solvents escaping from a web condense on a rotating condensation surface. Further, in a process described in, e.g., DE-PS 38 37 133, the moist air of a paper drier is removed or diverted. The condensate developing in a subsequently positioned heat exchanger is supplied to the paper manufacturing process. It is noted that both solutions are structurally complicated and expensive.
Suction elements are utilized in machines to manufacture and to refine webs, e.g., paper webs, textile webs, or other fibrous material webs, and include a rotating roll having a perforated roll jacket, as shown in, e.g., EP 738 801 and/or DE-Gbm 29 601 543. In this regard, a suction box is coupled to a vacuum source in the roll, i.e., in accordance with EP 738 801, or outside of the roll, i.e., in accordance with DE-Gbm 29 601 543. When located outside of the roll, the vacuum source is coupled to a part of the roll periphery that is not looped by the web.
The vacuum can be utilized to guide the web to or on the suction element and/or to remove moisture from the web. Independent of this, however, a certain portion of water is always removed through the suction element together with the air. Thus, separation of the water then occurs outside of the machine, e.g., through a heat exchanger, as in DE-PS 38 37 133. Again, this arrangement is expensive and requires a correspondingly high vacuum level.